Method of manufacturing a light emitting device

ABSTRACT

A method for fabricating a light emitting device, comprising: forming a plurality of light emitting stacked layers above a substrate; forming and patterning a current blocking (CB) layer on the light emitting stacked layers; forming a transparent conductive layer covering the light emitting stacked layers and the current blocking layer; etching the transparent conductive layer and exposing a reserved region for a first pad electrode and a mesa structure, respectively; and etching an exposed portion of the light emitting stacked layers and a portion of the current blocking layer to form a remaining current blocking layer, the mesa structure and a first opening.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application a divisional application of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/985,165, filed on Dec. 30, 2015, and the content of which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE APPLICATION (a) Technical Field

The present application is related to a light emitting device and methodof fabricating the same, and more particularly, to a light emittingdevice fabricated by chip on wafer processes with photolithographyadopting a technique using a current blocking (CB) layer serving as ahard mask.

(b) Description of Background Art

The typical chip on wafer processes for fabricating a horizontalIII-nitride based LED chip includes the following steps: first, thelight emitting stacked layers (which typically includes p-type layers,n-type layers, and an active layer made from an inorganic semiconductormaterial sandwiched between one of the p-type layers and one of then-type layers) are etched to form a mesa structure (requiring a firstphotolithography process). Second, a current blocking (CB) layer isformed on one of the upper LED stacked layer, and located underneath ap-side electrode, by wet etching (second photolithography process).Third, an ITO layer is formed to be covering the light emitting stackedlayers, and exposing a reserved region for a p-side pad electrode of thep-side electrode and the mesa structure (third photolithographyprocess). Fourth, p, n-side pad electrodes/finger electrodes are formed(fourth photolithography process). Fifth, a passivation layer isdeposited over the entire top surface of the horizontal nitride LED chipexcept p, n-side pad electrodes (fifth photolithography process). Thus,conventional technique for fabricating the horizontal III-nitride basedLED chip typically includes at least five separate photolithographyprocesses, in which each time, the photolithography process requires thefollowing individual sub-steps: cleaning and preparation of aphotoresist-coated surface, applying and coating a photoresist layeronto a material layer such as by spin coating, performing exposure anddeveloping after prebaking to form a patterned photoresist mask,performing wet or dry etching using the patterned photoresist mask, andremoving the remaining patterned photoresist layer. In theabove-described first step, the mesa structure etching process can beperformed using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching to expose then-type layer, such as a n-GaN layer (forming the n-mesa) upon etching aportion of the p-type layer, such as a p-GaN layer and the active layer(or can be also referred to as multiple quantum wells, MQW). Meanwhile,for the sake of preventing ITO layer pattern shift issues, for exampleleakage current issues between residue ITO and light emitting stackedlayers sidewalls, the subsequent four photolithography processes arerequired to use the resulting mesa pattern obtained at the completion ofthe first photolithography process, as alignment reference. As a result,the conventional fabrication method for LED chip can be more timeconsuming (higher cycle time) and requires relatively high processcosts.

SUMMARY OF THE APPLICATION

One purpose of the present application is to provide a light emittingdevice, such as an LED chip, or a laser diode (LD) that is fabricated bychip on wafer processes with photolithography adopting a technique usinga current blocking (CB) layer serving as a hard mask.

Another purpose of the present application is to provide a method forfabricating a light emitting device, such as an LED chip, or a laserdiode (LD), having more efficient and less costly chip on waferphotolithography processes

To achieve at least one of the purposes, a method for fabricating alight emitting device comprising the following steps is disclosed hereinin accordance with an embodiment of present application: first, aplurality of light emitting stacked layers (which typically includesp-type layers, n-type layers, and a planar active layer made from aninorganic semiconductor material sandwiched between one of the p-typelayers and one of the n-type layers) are formed above a substrate.Second, a current blocking (CB) layer is coated and patterned on the LEDstacked layers. Third, a transparent conductive layer, such as an ITOlayer is formed covering the light emitting stacked layers and thecurrent blocking (CB) layer. Fourth, the transparent conductive layer isetched and exposing a reserved region for a pad electrode and for a mesastructure. The reserved region includes an exposed portion of the lightemitting stacked layers and an exposed portion of the current blockinglayer. Fifth, the exposed portion of the light emitting stacked layersand the substantial portion of the current blocking layer are dry-etchedto form the mesa structure and a pad opening for the p-pad electrode.Sixth, for an option A, the current blocking layer is not wet-etched butdry etched under inductively coupled plasma (ICP), and leaves behind1000˜2000 angstrom in thickness, and a p-pad electrode is formed byfilling the pad opening above the remaining current blocking layerhaving 1000˜2000 angstrom in thickness, and another pad electrode(n-pad) is formed on the mesa structure. Meanwhile, for an option B,after the ICP dry etching, the current blocking layer is wet-etched tobe completely removed, and a pad electrode (p-pad electrode) is formedby filling the pad opening and another pad electrode (n-pad electrode)is formed on the mesa structure. Seventh, a passivation layer isdeposited over the entire or selected surface of the light emittingdevice.

To achieve at least one of the purposes, a light emitting device whichincludes a substrate, a plurality of light emitting stacked layers, amesa structure, a current blocking layer, a transparent conductivelayer, such as an ITO layer, a p-pad electrode, a n-pad electrode, and apassivation layer is disclosed herein for the embodiment of presentapplication. The light emitting stacked layers comprising a firstsurface and a second surface, in which the second surface is closer tothe substrate and is electrically opposite to the first surface. Thetransparent conductive layer is disposed and formed on or above thefirst surface of the light emitting stacked layers. The p-pad electrodeis disposed on the transparent conductive layer and on the first surfaceof the light emitting stacked layers, and the n-pad electrode isdisposed on the second surface of the light emitting stacked layers andon the mesa structure. The CB layer is disposed on the first surface oflight emitting stacked layers, surrounded by the transparent conductivelayer, and at a lower region of the p-pad electrode. In addition, thetransparent conductive layer has an opening in which a portion of thep-pad electrode is filling the opening of the transparent conductivelayer. The CB layer has a pattern such as a ring shape when shown in atop view of the light emitting device.

To achieve at least one of the purposes, a sidewall of the CB layerincludes two surface sections having different slopes undercross-sectional view, in which one of the surface section has a slope of10 degrees to 50 degrees and the other one surface section has a slopegreater than that of the one and smaller than or equal to 90 degrees.The sidewall of the transparent conductive layer and the sidewall of thelight emitting stacked layers are substantially flush and planar to oneanother located adjacent to the second surface of light emitting stackedlayers and the mesa structure, and adjacent to one end of the firstsurface of light emitting stacked layers.

To achieve at least one of the purposes and to prevent residuetransparent conductive layer from causing leakage current issues for thelight emitting device, embodiments of present application adopt aself-alignment process for performing photolithography process, in whichthe transparent conductive layer, the patterned CB layer, and the mesastructure are formed using the same photoresist mask, and performed atthe same step, the sidewall of the transparent conductive layer and thesidewall of the mesa structure are substantially coplanar or flush, andthe transparent conductive layer can be retracted a shorter gap/distanceas measured from edge of the mesa structure or the CB layer, of 1 to 2μm in a preferred embodiment, or less than 3 μm, for other embodimentsfor the transparent conductive layer. Such retract distance forITO-to-mesa or ITO-to-CB is much less than the retracting gap/distanceof conventional fabrication method which typically has an ITO-to-mesa orITO-to-CB retract distance of 5 μm to 7 μm.

These and other objectives of the present application will no doubtbecome obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiment that isillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present application is illustrated by way of example and not limitedby the figures of the accompanying drawings in which same referencesindicate similar elements. Many aspects of the disclosure can be betterunderstood with reference to the following drawings. Moreover, in thedrawings same reference numerals designate corresponding elementsthroughout. Wherever possible, the same reference numerals are usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or similar elements of anembodiment.

FIG. 1 shows a flow chart of a method for fabricating a light emittingdevice according to an embodiment of present application.

FIG. 2(a) shows cross-sectional views of a plurality of light emittingstacked layers formed above a substrate for the method of fabricatingthe light emitting device according to the embodiment of presentapplication.

FIG. 2(b) shows a cross-sectional view of a current blocking layerpatterned on the light emitting stacked layers for the method offabricating the light emitting device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 2(c) shows a cross-sectional view of a transparent conductive layerformed on the light emitting stacked layers and the current blockinglayer for the method of fabricating the light emitting device accordingto the embodiment.

FIG. 2(d) shows a cross-sectional view of the transparent conductivelayer etched to expose a reserved region R for the method of fabricatingthe light emitting device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 2(e) shows a cross-sectional view of a first opening and a mesastructure being formed by dry-etching for the method of fabricating thelight emitting device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 2(f) shows a cross-sectional view of a p-pad electrode and a n-padelectrode formed in the pad opening and on the mesa structurerespectively for an option 1 for the method of fabricating the lightemitting device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 2(g) shows a cross-sectional view of a passivation layer formed forthe fabricated light emitting device of the option 1 for the method offabricating the light emitting device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 2(h) shows a cross-sectional view of the current blocking layerbeing completely removed by wet-etching to form a pad opening for anoption 2 (continuing from FIG. 2(e)) of the method of fabricating thelight emitting device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 2(i) shows a cross-sectional view of a p-pad electrode and a n-padelectrode formed in the pad opening and on the mesa structurerespectively for the option 2 for the method of fabricating the lightemitting device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 2(j) shows a cross-sectional view of a passivation layer formed forthe fabricated light emitting device of the option 2 for the method offabricating the light emitting device according to the embodiment

FIG. 3 shows top views of each layer in steps of FIGS. 2(b), 2(h)-2(j).

FIG. 4A shows a partial top view of the light emitting device with theCB layer exhibiting a ring-shape.

FIG. 4B shows an enlargement view of a portion of the light-emittingdevice of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5A shows a top view of the p-pad electrode.

FIG. 5B shows a magnified cross-sectional view SEM diagram of a sidewallof the CB layer having two surface sections of different slopes, whichis taken along a dashed line C-C′ shown in FIG. 5A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present application will now be described more specifically withreference to the following embodiments. It is to be noted that thefollowing descriptions of the embodiments of this application arepresented herein for purpose of illustration and description only. It isnot intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise formdisclosed.

A method for fabricating a light emitting device, such as an LED chip oran LD chip, according to an embodiment of present application isdescribed as follow: FIG. 1 illustrates a flow chart of a method forfabricating a light emitting device according to an embodiment ofpresent application, and FIGS. 2(a)-2(j) show a plurality ofcross-sectional views of the corresponding chip on wafer fabricationprocesses for fabricating the light emitting device according to theembodiment, which includes the following steps: In Step S10, a pluralityof light emitting stacked layers 15 (which may include p-type layers,n-type layers, and a planar active layer made from an inorganicsemiconductor material sandwiched between one of the p-type layers andone of the n-type layers) are formed above a substrate 10, as shown inFIG. 2(a). The material of the light emitting stacked layers 15 includesaluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP), or aluminum gallium indiumnitride (AlGaInN). The active layer includes single heterostructure(SH), double heterostructure (DH), double-side double heterostructure(DDH), or multi-quantum well (MQW) structure. Specifically, the activelayer includes i-type, p-type, or n-type semiconductor. The active layeremits light when an electrical current passes through the light emittingstacked layers 15. When the active layer includes AlGaInP basedmaterial, the active layer emits amber series light, such as red light,orange light, or yellow light; when the active layer includes AlGaInNbased material, the active layer emits blue, green, or UV light. Thepresent embodiment illustrates the semiconductor light emitting stackedlayer 15 with aluminum gallium indium nitride (AlGaInN) based material.These layers can be deposited by a variety methods, including MOVPE(metal organic vapor phase epitaxy), MBE (molecular beam epitaxy), orHVPE (hydride vapor phase epitaxy). The substrate 10 can be made ofsapphire. In Step S15, a current blocking (CB) layer 25 is coated andpatterned on the light emitting stacked layers 15, but without etchingan opening for the CB layer 25, as shown in FIG. 2(b). The CB layer 25is made for example, of SiO₂, SiN_(x) or alternate multiple layers madethereof to form a DBR. In Step S20, a transparent conductive layer 30(serving as a current spreading layer) is formed covering the lightemitting stacked layers 15 and the CB layer 25, as shown in FIG. 2(c).The transparent conductive layer 30 preferable includes an oxidecontaining at least one element selected from zinc, indium, or tin, suchas ZnO, InO, SnO, ITO (indium tin oxide), IZO (indium zinc oxide), GZO(gallium-doped zinc oxide). In the illustrated embodiment, thetransparent conductive layer 30 is an ITO layer. In Step S25, the ITOlayer 30 is etched and exposing a reserved region R for a first padelectrode (p-pad electrode) and for a mesa structure 20 (formed byetching a portion of the light emitting stacked layers), as shown inFIG. 2(d). The reserved region R includes an exposed portion of thelight emitting stacked layers 15 and an exposed portion of the currentblocking layer 25. In Step S30, the exposed portion of the lightemitting stacked layers 15 and a substantial portion of the CB layer 25are dry-etched by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) to form the mesastructure 20 (n-mesa) and a first opening 12. In the illustratedembodiment, the first opening 12 is a pad opening for a p-pad electrode35 described latter, as shown in FIG. 2(e). In Step S35 (Option 1 asshown in FIG. 1), the CB layer 25 is not wet-etched but dry-etched underICP, and leaves behind 1000˜2000 angstrom in thickness, and a p-padelectrode 35 is formed by filling the pad opening 12 above the remainingCB layer 25 having 1000˜2000 angstrom in thickness, and a second padelectrode (n-pad electrode) 40 is formed on the mesa structure 20, asshown in FIG. 2(f). Alternatively, instead of Step S35, Step S40 (Option2 as shown in FIG. 1) can be performed, in which the CB layer 25 iswet-etched to be completely removed to form a pad opening 12′ as shownin FIG. 2(h), and in Step S45, a pad (p-pad) electrode 35 is formed byfilling the pad opening 12 and a second pad electrode (n-pad electrode)40 is formed on the mesa structure 20, as shown in FIG. 2(i). Then,afterwards, in Step S50: a passivation layer 50 is deposited over a topsurface of the light emitting device 1 except for the top surfaces ofthe p-pad electrode 35 and the n-pad electrode 40 respectively, whichare left exposed, as shown in FIGS. 2(g) and 2(j). Referring to FIG. 3,the current blocking layer (CB) 25 formed in step S15 of FIG. 2(b), themesa structure 20 and the transparent conductive layer 30 (MESA/ITO)formed in step s40 of FIG. 2(h), the pad electrodes 35, 40 (Pad) formedin step S45 of FIG. 2(i), and the passivation layer 50 (PSV) formed instep S50 of FIG. 2(j) are shown from a top view perspective,respectively. In the above fabrication method, the current blockinglayer (CB) 25 being made of for example, SiO₂ or SiN_(x), can be usedserving as a hard mask upon inductively coupled plasma (ICP) dry etchinga portion of the light emitting stacked layers 15 to form the mesastructure 20, while at substantially the same time, a portion of thecurrent blocking layer (CB) 25 is removed by ICP dry etching, and uponcompletion of the mesa structure 20, wet etching, such as buffered oxideetching (BOE) can be used to remove the remaining CB layer 25, and aP-pad electrode 35 can be filled into the pad opening 12′ for contactinga p-GaN layer of the light emitting stacked layers 15, and the padopening 12′ is formed through the CB/ITO layers 25, 30 beneath the p-padelectrode 35 as shown in FIG. 3. The mesa structure 20 includes twoportions. in which one portion of the mesa structure 20 is a peripheryportion 20 a (as shown in FIG. 3) surrounding the light emitting stackedlayers 15 and the ITO layer 30, and an another portion of the mesastructure 20 includes a second opening 55 as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG.4A. In the illustrated embodiment, the second opening 55 is a n-padelectrode opening for the n-pad electrode. The n-pad electrode opening55 is in and surrounded by the light emitting stacked layers 15 and theITO layer 30, and a portion of a n-GaN layer (not labeled) of the lightemitting stacked layers 15 is exposed in the n-pad electrode opening 55.A n-pad electrode 40 can be filled into the n-pad electrode opening 55for contacting the n-GaN layer of the light emitting stacked layers 15.The p, n-pad electrodes 35, 40 can respectively include a pad and/or anextending electrode connecting to and extending from the pad. The pad isdisposed for an outer power connecting and the extending electrode isused for current spreading when current is injected from the outer powerthrough the pad, current can be spread through the extending electrode.A ratio of thickness of the CB layer 25 to depth of the mesa structure20 (as measured with respect to the first surface 42 of the lightemitting stacked layers 15 is between 1.3˜3.3, so as to ensureprevention of over-etching or excessive residue CB layer 25 beingformed. Due to adoption of the self-alignment technique in which thepatterned ITO layer 30, the patterned CB layer 25, and the mesastructure 20 are formed using the same photoresist mask as described inabove Steps S25 and S30, the sidewall of the transparent conductivelayer (ITO layer) 30 and the sidewall of the mesa structure 20 aresubstantially coplanar or flush. In the above light emitting device 1fabrication method, the passivation layer 50 can be made of insulatingmaterial, such as silicon nitride, silicon oxide, silicon oxynitride, oraluminum oxide which is deposited on the defined surface area of thelight emitting device 1 using CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition)technology, PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition)technology, electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition(ECR-CVD) technology, or LPCVD (Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition)technology, whereby the passivation layer 50 is accurately formedwithout covering the areas of the pad electrodes 35, 40.

Referring to FIGS. 2(g) and 2(j), an light emitting device 1 asfabricated according to the embodiment of present application is shownin a cross-sectional view, which includes a substrate 10, a plurality oflight emitting stacked layers 15, a mesa structure 20, a CB layer 25, atransparent conductive layer 30 in the form of an ITO layer 30, a p-padelectrode 35, a n-pad electrode 40, and a passivation layer 50. Thelight emitting stacked layers 15 comprising a first surface 42 and asecond surface 44, in which the second surface 44 is closer to thesubstrate 10 and is electrically opposite to the first surface 42. Thetransparent conductive layer 30 is disposed and formed on or above thefirst surface 42 of the light emitting stacked layers 15. The p-padelectrode 35 is disposed on the transparent conductive layer 30 and onthe first surface 42 of the light emitting stacked layers 15, and then-pad electrode 40 is disposed on the second surface 44 of the lightemitting stacked layers 15 and on the mesa structure 20. Referring toFIG. 2(g), there is a thinner portion/section of the CB layer 25 betweenthe p-pad electrode 35 and the first surface 42, and the p-pad electrode35 is in contact with the thinner portion/section of the CB layer 25.Referring to FIG. 2(i), the p-pad electrode 35 is in contact with thefirst surface 42. The CB layer 25 is disposed on the first surface 42 ofthe light emitting stacked layers 15, surrounded by the transparentconductive layer 30, and at a lower region of the p-pad electrode 35. Inaddition, the mesa structure 20 has a n-pad electrode opening 55 inwhich a portion of the n-pad electrode 40 is filling the n-pad electrodeopening 55 of the mesa structure 20. FIG. 4A, shows a top view of themesa structure 20, the CB layer 25, and the transparent conductive layer30. The CB layer 25 has a ring-shape as shown in a top view of the lightemitting device 1. FIG. 4B shows a partial enlargement view of a(circular dashed-line) portion A of the light-emitting device 1 of FIG.4A. The mesa structure 20 including the n-pad electrode opening 55 hasan edge, the transparent conductive layer 30 of the illustratedembodiment is retracted by a shorter distance B with respect to the edgeof the mesa structure 20 from top view. For the sake of preventingresidue ITO from causing leakage current issues for the light emittingdevice 1 and due to having a self-alignment process in which thetransparent conductive layer 30 and the mesa structure 20 are formedusing the same photoresist mask, the transparent conductive layer 30 ofthe illustrated embodiment is retracted by the shorter distance B withrespect to the edge of the mesa structure 20, of 1 to 2 μm, or less than3 μm, which is less than that of the conventional fabrication methodhaving ITO-to-mesa retract distance/gap of 5 μm-7 μm. Referring to FIG.5A, an enlargement top view of the p-pad electrode 35 is shown, and theCB layer 25 under the p-pad electrode 35 is shown by a dashed-line ringstructure. In FIG. 5A, a cutting-plane location is identified along adashed line C-C′ in the illustrated embodiment, and a magnifiedcross-sectional view SEM diagram of a sidewall of the CB layer 25 havingtwo surface sections of different slopes is shown in FIG. 5B. Referringto FIG. 5B, as shown in a cross-sectional view, a sidewall of the CBlayer 25 includes two surface sections 26 a, 26 b having differentslopes, in which the surface section 26 a has a slope of 10 degrees to50 degrees and the surface section 26 b has a slope of 50 degrees to 70degrees. In one embodiment, a slope of the surface section 26 a isbetween 10 degrees to 15 degrees. In the illustrated embodiment, thesurface section 26 a has a slope of 41.6 degrees, and the surfacesection 26 b has a slope of 65 degrees. A sidewall 31 of the transparentconductive layer 30 and a sidewall 16 of the light emitting stackedlayers 15 are substantially flush and planar located adjacent to one endof the second surface 44 of the light emitting stacked layers 15 and themesa structure 20, and adjacent to one end of the first surface 42 ofthe light emitting stacked layers 15. For the sake of preventing residueITO from causing leakage current issues for the light emitting device 1and due to having a self-alignment process in which the transparentconductive layer 30 and the mesa structure 20 are formed using the samephotoresist mask, the transparent conductive layer 30 of the illustratedembodiment is retracted a shorter distance with respect to the edge ofthe surface section 26 b of the CB layer 25, of 1 to 2 μm, or less than3 μm, which is less than that of the conventional fabrication methodhaving ITO-to-CB retract distance/gap of 5 μm-7 μm. In the embodiment,the transparent conductive layer 30 is retracted by a distance withrespect to the edge of the surface section 26 b of the CB layer 25, of1.116 μm. In one embodiment, the surface section 26 b caused by ICP isalso wet-etched during the following remaining CB layer wet etchingprocess. The slope of the surface section 26 a is equal to that of thesurface section 26 b. The slope of the surface section 26 a is between10 degrees to 15 degrees. The ITO-to CB retract distance is between 2 μmto 3 μm.

It is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will beunderstood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent thatvarious changes may be made thereto without departing from the spiritand scope of the embodiments or sacrificing all of its materialadvantages.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for fabricating a light emitting device,comprising: forming a plurality of light emitting stacked layers above asubstrate; forming and patterning a current blocking (CB) layer on thelight emitting stacked layers; forming a transparent conductive layercovering the light emitting stacked layers and the current blockinglayer; etching the transparent conductive layer and exposing a reservedregion for a first pad electrode and a mesa structure, respectively; andetching an exposed portion of the light emitting stacked layers and aportion of the current blocking layer to form a remaining currentblocking layer, the mesa structure and a first opening.
 2. The methodfor fabricating the light emitting device as claimed in claim 1, furthercomprising: forming the first pad electrode by filling the firstopening, and forming a second pad electrode on the mesa structure; anddepositing a passivation layer over a top surface of the light emittingdevice.
 3. The method for fabricating the light emitting device asclaimed in claim 2, wherein the passivation layer is made of siliconnitride, silicon oxide, silicon oxynitride, or aluminum oxide, depositedon a defined surface area of the light emitting device using CVD, PECVD,ECR-CVD, or LPCVD.
 4. The method for fabricating the light emittingdevice as claimed in claim 2, wherein the first pad electrode comprisesa p-pad electrode contacting a p-type layer of the light emittingstacked layers, and forming the first opening through the currentblocking layer and the transparent conductive layer beneath the p-padelectrode.
 5. The method for fabricating the light emitting device asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the exposed portion of the light emittingstacked layers and the portion of the current blocking layer are etchedby dry etching.
 6. The method for fabricating the light emitting deviceas claimed in claim 5, wherein the current blocking layer is used as ahard mask upon dry-etching a portion of the light emitting stackedlayers to form the mesa structure, while at substantially the same time,removing a portion of the current blocking layer, and upon completion offorming the mesa structure.
 7. The method for fabricating the lightemitting device as claimed in claim 6, further comprising removing theremaining current blocking layer by a wet etching.
 8. The method forfabricating the light emitting device as claimed in claim 7, wherein thefirst pad electrode is formed by filling the first opening, wherein themesa structure comprises a second opening and a second pad electrode isformed in the second opening of the mesa structure.
 9. The method forfabricating the light emitting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein aratio of thickness of the current blocking layer to a depth of the mesastructure is between 1.3˜3.3.
 10. The method for fabricating the lightemitting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mesa structure areformed using a same photoresist mask via a self-alignment process duringphotolithography, thereby producing sidewalls of the transparentconductive layer and of the mesa structure to be substantially flush toone another.
 11. The method for fabricating the light emitting device asclaimed in claim 10, wherein a retract distance of the transparentconductive layer with respect to an edge of the mesa structure is lessthan 3 μm.
 12. The method for fabricating the light emitting device asclaimed in claim 10, wherein a retract distance of the transparentconductive layer with respect to an edge of a sidewall of the currentblocking layer is less than 3 μm.
 13. The method for fabricating thelight emitting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the light emittingstacked layers comprise p-type layers, n-type layers, and an activelayer sandwiched between one of the p-type layers and one of the n-typelayers, and the mesa structure comprises an exposed surface of one ofthe n-type layers.